


Family Dinner

by underscoredom



Series: Stranger Things Have Happened [1]
Category: Marvel, Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Gen, but no spoilers for the movie, family ritual of sorts, movie!verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-28
Updated: 2012-04-28
Packaged: 2017-11-04 11:03:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/393110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/underscoredom/pseuds/underscoredom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phil and his mother have dinner twice a month, preferably on Thursdays.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family Dinner

They have dinner twice a month, preferably on Thursdays. They used to do it in Phil's apartment, which required him to leave much too early than what he was used to. He'd come home to his mother already dicing onions or carrots or melting butter in the pan or any of a dozen things. Sometimes, they cooked together. Sometimes, when his mother has had a stressful week, he'll insist on doing it on his own, letting his mother idly flick through the television or browse the day's papers.

 

Phil secretly loved these evenings. Cooking was almost second nature to him, having spent half his childhood in the kitchen, watching his mother dicing and mixing spices and meat and vegetables. The sizzle of food reminded him of late afternoons, when he'd just come home from school. He'd head over to the kitchen, where his mother was cooking tonight's meal, a glass of juice and a stack of crackers or a bowl of sliced apples awaiting him.

 

Phil was sure his mother missed these times as well. His mother insisted that there was no excuse to eating frozen TV dinners (and here, his mother would give Phil a very pointed look, as though scolding him for all the poor excuse Phil's called dinner whenever he stayed late at night in his office) but Phil was sure it was due to the sentiment that a home cooked meal meant more than anything else.

 

Then came the day when SHIELD caught his mother and kept him captive. Phil tried not to think too much about it; he was reviewing the result of Banner's research when he had, by chance, glanced from the paperwork to the glass walls, where he saw his mother quietly walking amidst a barricade of SHIELD agents. (Looking back, when it came to his mother, there was no such thing as chance.) They had shared a look, a quick glimpse, and his mother had given him a small, reassuring smile.

 

"Something wrong, Phil?" Bruce had asked, hands fiddling with the temples of his glasses.

 

"Nothing." He paused, realizing his voice was too sharp for nothing. Bruce looked sceptical but didn't push.

 

Fury seemed to sense his slight unease and gave him the pleasure of not heading this specific operation. Phil was thankful; the day after, he swallowed his relief when he was awakened in the middle of the night with a phone call informing him that his mother had escaped.

 

Since then, they've both dropped the pretense that his mother had no idea about the whereabouts of SHIELD. The Thursday after that event, when Phil exited the building at precisely four fifty, his mother was seated on one of the benches, legs crossed, hands perched on his knee. His mother exuded elegance, as was the norm, and the suit highlighted his sharp angles. His hair was slicked back and shorter than when Phil had last seen him.

 

"Mother," Phil greeted, leaning forward to give his mother a peck on the cheek. "I didn't expect you here." Which was a lie they both knew. He noted that his mother wore the scarf he had given last Christmas; the one with thin red borders that matched the dark green fabric.

 

"I hear there's a remarkable Mexican that opened last week, just around the corner," his mother shared, lips curved up, as though holding back an amusing secret.

 

"Oh?"

 

"Yes." His mother stood up, brushing off non-existant dust off his suit and buttoning his jacket. "Shall we go?" He walked ahead, not waiting for Phil's answer, knowing full well that Phil would catch up so they could walk side by side.

 

"Marcella promised Ton and Gary that the food will be worth the price," his mother assured him. Phil raised an eyebrow.

 

"From RD?"

 

"Where else?" His mother's smile sharpened into a smirk when Phil sighed. At least he knew where the junior officers were disappearing into when he asked for them.

**Author's Note:**

> I dreamt about two headcanons but accidentally mushed them into one: Peggy Carter is actually Loki in disguise (headcanon 1) and Phil Coulson is Peggy's child (headcanon 2). So now it totally makes sense to me if Phil and Loki spend time doing some mother-son bonding.


End file.
